brownsdream - Posted - 04/12/2020:  01:35:22

Howdy Folks,

Matt Brown here. After teaching private lessons & 4 levels of group classes devoted to two-finger (thumb-lead) banjo at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago during the 7.5 years that I lived in The Windy City, I've decided to launch a free instructional website for those interested in two-finger banjo. Too often my Old Town School students would ask where else they could look for tabs, and I didn't have an answer beyond, "well, there's probably some great stuff on Banjo Hangout!" And there is, but you have probably noticed that even here, two-finger banjo is sometimes clumped into the back end of the rather oddly worded "Clawhammer and Old Time" designation, which is a different conversation entirely.

Anyhoo, I've been devoting a bit of time the past few weeks to shooting videos, writing tabs, and building a website. As of this writing, only the exercises, 3 beginner tunes, and 3 play along videos are posted. However, between now and when I most publicly announce the site on May 4th (if only there'd been two-finger banjo picking in the Mos Eisley cantina!), I will be adding the first batch of intermediate and advanced tunes. Today, I filmed intermediate-level videos for "Soldier's Joy" and "Say Darling Say," as well as play along videos for each of those. They will be the next to be posted, and then I'll film several advanced tunes.

I would love your input as to what tunes you might appreciate me teaching. They can be favorite jam tunes, obscure ballads, or dense transcriptions of iconic two-finger performances. I plan on adding to the website for years to come, and the more support I get for it, the more time I can afford to devote to it.

The website was softly launched a few days ago, so you can see the layout and my style of teaching:

twofingerbanjo.com/

I've also attached one of the teaching videos directly to this post so you can view it easily. It's a beginner arrangement of "Groundhog" in G, and the first tune I teach on the site.

I'll check back here regularly for comments, questions, and to peruse your requests. One day I hope to have some special guest masters featured on the site, particularly the fingerpicking geniuses who inspired me to try my hand at all this.

Thanks for reading! That was way longer than I expected.

Tunefully,

Matt Brown

VIDEO: Two-Finger Banjo: "Groundhog"
(click to view)

 

DocV - Posted - 04/12/2020:  04:58:41

Thanks Matt for your interesting site. I plan to run through your Groundhog lesson later today. You web site seems.quite complete. I like the layout with tabs and short videos. Good stuff!

Greg Denton - Posted - 04/12/2020:  04:59:32

Very nice! thank you Matt!

Neil Allen - Posted - 04/12/2020:  06:01:44

Hi Matt,

Thanks for putting this up.

It's great to see some more material available on this surprisingly versatile style.

R Buck - Posted - 04/12/2020:  07:09:29

Nice Matt, good stuff it should help lots of folks.

Jack Baker - Posted - 04/12/2020:  10:43:44

Very nicely done Matt. I can't seem to get my NYC students interested in this early form of old time banjo. They either want Clawhammer or Bluegrass...Two finger is easy and it's a ton of fun....Jack Baker

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Originally posted by brownsdream

Howdy Folks,

Matt Brown here. After teaching private lessons & 4 levels of group classes devoted to two-finger (thumb-lead) banjo at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago during the 7.5 years that I lived in The Windy City, I've decided to launch a free instructional website for those interested in two-finger banjo. Too often my Old Town School students would ask where else they could look for tabs, and I didn't have an answer beyond, "well, there's probably some great stuff on Banjo Hangout!" And there is, but you have probably noticed that even here, two-finger banjo is sometimes clumped into the back end of the rather oddly worded "Clawhammer and Old Time" designation, which is a different conversation entirely.

Anyhoo, I've been devoting a bit of time the past few weeks to shooting videos, writing tabs, and building a website. As of this writing, only the exercises, 3 beginner tunes, and 3 play along videos are posted. However, between now and when I most publicly announce the site on May 4th (if only there'd been two-finger banjo picking in the Mos Eisley cantina!), I will be adding the first batch of intermediate and advanced tunes. Today, I filmed intermediate-level videos for "Soldier's Joy" and "Say Darling Say," as well as play along videos for each of those. They will be the next to be posted, and then I'll film several advanced tunes.

I would love your input as to what tunes you might appreciate me teaching. They can be favorite jam tunes, obscure ballads, or dense transcriptions of iconic two-finger performances. I plan on adding to the website for years to come, and the more support I get for it, the more time I can afford to devote to it.

The website was softly launched a few days ago, so you can see the layout and my style of teaching:

twofingerbanjo.com/

I've also attached one of the teaching videos directly to this post so you can view it easily. It's a beginner arrangement of "Groundhog" in G, and the first tune I teach on the site.

I'll check back here regularly for comments, questions, and to peruse your requests. One day I hope to have some special guest masters featured on the site, particularly the fingerpicking geniuses who inspired me to try my hand at all this.

Thanks for reading! That was way longer than I expected.

Tunefully,

Matt Brown

 

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blazo - Posted - 04/12/2020:  12:32:56

Thanks Matt. I'm getting into 2 finger lately. This is timely and sure to be helpful. I appreciate your time and effort.

rfink1913 - Posted - 04/12/2020:  13:44:07

Bookmarked for future reference. Thanks! :)

ukulelegirl - Posted - 04/12/2020:  15:24:17

I Saw a tutorial of Clawhammer style on ukulele yesterday, done by Cathy Fink. One of the best I ever saw. I could even see what her fingers were doing. Thanks Cathy.

writedivine - Posted - 04/12/2020:  16:40:23

Thank you for sharing your time and talent, it is much appreciated!

greybeard2020 - Posted - 04/12/2020:  21:57:00

Hey, Matt. I've been dabbling with two-finger. I am excited to check out your content. I'll give you my feedback.

Mooooo - Posted - 04/12/2020:  23:24:44

I really enjoyed the groundhog tutorial. I'm going to have fun learning to play 2-finger. Thanks to you and your dad for this.

brownsdream - Posted - 04/12/2020:  23:32:04

I'm so glad to hear that! You are welcome.

olbap - Posted - 04/13/2020:  02:09:33

NIce ! merci beaucoup

mbudsberg - Posted - 04/13/2020:  10:59:14

Thank you Matt! I have not been able to find a whole lot of organized two finger instructional material. I'm very excited about this!

mjt0229 - Posted - 04/13/2020:  11:01:50

This is great. I just recently started playing around with 2FTL as an occasional alternative to clawhammer, and I hadn't found a lot of resources, but this looks fantastic.

Old Bassman - Posted - 04/15/2020:  04:53:38

I will definitely check it out. Thanks.

Lone Walnut - Posted - 04/15/2020:  06:40:51

Wow! Nicely done Matt. Excellent tutorial. Looking forward to learning from you.

Good Buddy - Posted - 04/16/2020:  10:14:37

These tutorials are fantastic. I'm looking forward to learning this style. Thank you so much for the lessons.

pickn5 - Posted - 04/20/2020:  05:24:49

I think I'll give it a try starting today. Thank you for your generosity.

Keith55 - Posted - 04/20/2020:  15:23:16

Matt, the exercises are great. I'm pleased that you mean business with the G major scale exercise on all 4 melody strings. I, and I'm sure many others will benefit greatly from your new website. Thanks for putting up your website.

pickn5 - Posted - 04/21/2020:  05:24:39

Started yesterday with the picking patterns and G scale. I'm itching to try Groundhog, but, want to get the picking patterns under my fingers first as I'm used to 3 finger picking.

Very nice lessons and easy to understand.

brownsdream - Posted - 04/21/2020:  09:24:46

Hey Folks!

Thanks for all the kind remarks and for testing out the site since I first posted about it. An intermediate version of "Soldier's Joy" (aDADE) is now posted there. Its play-along video will be added later today:

twofingerbanjo.com/lessons/#intermediate

We've also recorded "Say Darling Say" (aDADE), "Wildwood Flower" (gDGBD), and Benton Flippen's "June Apple" (aEAC#E). I'll circle back and let you know here once they are all live as well.

Best,

Matt

Edited by - brownsdream on 04/21/2020 09:25:23

Mooooo - Posted - 04/21/2020:  12:19:50

Another great lesson Matt. I am looking forward to the new ones. This style is so nice, I am having great fun with your lessons and the play-alongs. I know I sound like a broken record but thanks a lot for this. I probably wouldn't have started without your lessons. But I am so happy I did.

brownsdream - Posted - 04/21/2020:  12:30:15

quote:

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Originally posted by Mooooo

Another great lesson Matt. I am looking forward to the new ones. This style is so nice, I am having great fun with your lessons and the play-alongs. I know I sound like a broken record but thanks a lot for this. I probably wouldn't have started without your lessons. But I am so happy I did.

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you are so welcome! 8^)

brownsdream - Posted - 04/22/2020:  10:49:19

One quick update:

As the result of a student's feedback (and a sneaking suspicion that had been lurking in the back of my mind), I've decided to reformat the lesson pages so they're not all on one. The intermediate lessons will all now be here:

twofingerbanjo.com/intermediate-tunes

The home page will always have links to any other pages with lessons, so that's a good place to start for browsing. I'll be tweaking this a bit further before the May 4th launch, but just want to keep all of you folks in the loop. Thanks entirely to this thread, I've had more than 1,000 visits to the home page/lessons since the soft launch on April 5. Thank you!

Matt

Neil Allen - Posted - 04/26/2020:  06:58:05

Another excellent tutorial in Soldier's Joy, thanks Matt.

In addition to the quality of the tutorials, I particularly like the way in which the YouTube versions of them provide a direct link into each phrase. This is very useful and saves a lot of time!

brownsdream - Posted - 04/30/2020:  18:53:21

The first advanced tune is posted! It's Benton Flippen's "June Apple," as heard on his amazing album Old Time, New Times:

twofingerbanjo.com/advanced-tunes

We'll be adding another intermediate tune and two more advanced tunes before publicly launching the site on Monday morning, but I thought some of you folks might be itching for a more difficult tune to while away the hours this weekend...

Let me know if you have any issues with it, if you try it!

Joe Connor - Posted - 05/01/2020:  15:08:46

That's a nice site, Matt. I'm enjoying it greatly.